Resumes should always be sent out as a .pdf. Nothing else. Not .docx, not .txt, not, heaven help me, .gif. A Google Doc is something new to me, but I’m not surprised in the slightest that somebody tried it.

I don’t have any PA experience yet so I am trying to do my research and figure out what the specific tasks and terminology are so I don’t flounder (as much) right out of the gate. As you say, the excuse of being a new PA only works for half a day.

I certainly can (and will)2 go through your blog to find this info for myself, but I think it would be pretty awesome if you also made a tab on the left for this category or wrote a summary post on it. For example, your post when you described every step in copying sides was awesome.

That’s a really great idea. The Anonymous Production Assistant has explained a lot of terms over the years, but there’s no central database for all of them. Over the next few weeks, I’ll go through old posts and see what I can come up with.

If you have any terms that you’d like defined, please send me an email or tweet. Or, if you’re a coordinator who finds she has to explain certain phrases every season, let me know those, too. Maybe we can end the cascade of questions in the future.

8 Comments

Just wanted to say your website is awesome and also a question for you regarding twitter or other social media and seeking jobs.

I see quite a few ALM or LM’s etc posting on twitter, is it completely inappropriate to tweet them back saying something like “hey I’m available if a PA gig comes up”. Obviously I would send something a little more professional in my tweet, but I first wanted to see if that was even something people do. I’ve never tried or attempted it because I figured it was too causal, but things have changed so much with social media these days maybe this is a viable job search tool now?

Just wanted to let you know that I improved my cover letter based on this site and got a call for an interview the next day saying, “I liked your response.” I had the interview today and got the job! I’m just a day player but it’s my first PA job and he’s getting me meetings with his friends that are in my field.

“Try harder women”? Seriously? You think the reason female writers struggle is because they’re not trying hard enough? That the reason women struggle for equal pay and for high ranking positions not only in this field but in essentially every major industry are because they don’t try hard or because they someone have a weaker work ethic than their male counterparts? I know you work in LA but you may want to check yourself on the misogyny before you post. And please don’t defend yourself with some BS statistics. Attitudes like this are part of the reason for women struggling in this business.

Really? Did you honestly think that was intended to be serious? It was a joke.

And I don’t mean you can’t take a joke; I mean, you don’t get the joke. The joke functions because it’s the exact opposite of what I and most everyone else would think.

I sincerely hope you’re just new to this blog. If you’ve read anything else here about women and the Industry, it should’ve been clear I absolutely did not mean that the reason women are selling fewer spec scripts is that they’re not trying hard enough.

Also, I don’t know if you’ve spent any time in Los Angeles, but in my experience, people in this industry are hyper-sensitive to accusations of sexism, racism, homophobia, and any other politically sensitive topic. “I know you work in LA, but…” is condescending to an entire city.

I immediately understood it was a joke. However, it’s been a couple months since the last time I really got wapped on the face with a piece of raw misogyny, so my sense of humor is pretty robust right now. In defense of the earlier poster, if she’s just recently tangled with one of the 9000 little ways that undercut a woman’s professional efforts, she could be in no mood for sarcasm.